Overnight parking restrictions eyed for Crescent Park

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Cars drive past new no parking signs on Newell Road in Palo Alto near Newell Bridge on Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2013. The signs were installed in Palo AltoÕs Crescent Park neighborhood in response to East Palo Alto residents parking their vehicles there. Red curbs have also been painted on the north part of Edgewood Road; curbs on the south side will be painted after a utility project is completed.(Kirstina Sangsahachart/ Daily News)

Overnight street parking in parts of Palo Alto’s Crescent Park neighborhood could soon be a thing of the past.

Fed up with an influx of vehicles from apartment complexes in neighboring East Palo Alto, a group of residents approached the city earlier this year with a request to restrict parking on certain streets from 2 to 5 a.m., said Jaime Rodriguez, the city’s chief transportation official.

A petition residents subsequently circulated at the city’s request showed strong support for the proposal, Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez said the city has conducted follow-up surveys on Edgewood Drive, from Southwood Drive to Jefferson Drive; on Phillips Road, from Edgewood to Madison Way; on Dana Avenue, half a block south and north of Newell; and on Newell, from Dana to Edgewood.

Although he had not received all of the surveys as of Thursday, Rodriguez said the results so far are in line with the petition. The city wants to see an approval rating of at least 70 percent, he added.

“For the most part, we’re supportive of requests for improvement from the community as long as they are supported by a majority of the community,” Rodriguez said. “And that’s what we’re seeing in this case.”

A community meeting to discuss the results of the surveys has been scheduled for Tuesday, from 7 to 8:30 p.m., at the Lucie Stern Community Center, located at 1305 Middlefield Road.

The city council would have final say over the proposal, said Rodriguez, adding that the parking restrictions would remain in place for one year and then be evaluated for continued enforcement.

Rodriguez estimated the cost of installing the no-parking signs would be about $12,000, or $250 per sign.

Chris Goumas, who lives on Edgewood Drive, said the parking restrictions weren’t an ideal solution, but the noise of vehicles arriving late in the evening and leaving early in the morning coupled with the trash they often leave behind has become all but unbearable.

“It’s a noise- and quality-of-life issue,” Goumas said. “You don’t move to Palo Alto to have these types of problems.”

But Goumas expressed sympathy for the East Palo Alto residents who are parking in his neighborhood. They have told him that their landlords are charging as much as $100 per month for a parking space that was previously free.

Ben Ball, another Edgewood Drive resident, said the influx of vehicles began about three years ago. Now, roughly 90 vehicles park on Newell Road and Edgewood Drive on any given night, he said.

“It feels like there’s definitely been a change,” said Ball, adding that he’s heard the same stories as Goumas.

The Crescent Park Neighborhood Association hasn’t taken an official position on the proposal, said its president, Norman Beamer. However, Beamer expressed concern that the parking restrictions would only push the problem deeper into the neighborhood without addressing the root cause.

“Frankly, I’d be surprised if this doesn’t generate a fair amount of objections from residents,” Beamer said. “Unless there’s substantial support and an objective need for the restrictions, it shouldn’t be done.”

The proposal would build on other efforts by the city to address concerns about parking and vehicle speeds in Crescent Park. The city has installed no-parking signs between the Newell Road bridge and Edgewood Drive and turned the intersection of Newell Road and Hamilton Avenue into an all-way stop following a community meeting in early March.

Rodriguez said further parking restrictions could be coming. A petition is being circulated to bar parking on the north side of Newell Road between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., he said.

Jason Green is a breaking news reporter for the Bay Area News Group. He works week nights and spends most of his time covering crime and public safety. A graduate of UC Santa Barbara and the University of Southern California, he cut his teeth at the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin and the Palo Alto Daily News, and has been with the Bay Area News Group since its inception.